Senator Chris Murphy will today propose an amendment to S.1243, the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, that will require the Department of Transportation (DOT) to assess the impact on American jobs before issuing a waiver to the Buy America provision in federal procurement laws.

Murphy will call up the amendment on the floor of the Senate just after 12:30pm.

“Making critical long-term investments in our infrastructure should create jobs in America, not overseas,” said Murphy. “This is simple: our roads and bridges need work, and so do workers and companies across Connecticut and the country. Waivers and loopholes in our Buy America laws cost jobs, and at the very least, DOT should precisely account for how many American jobs their waiver decisions will cost.”

Currently, the bill states that the Secretary of Transportation may issue a waiver to the Buy America provisions in this bill and in current law. Before issuing a waiver, the Secretary must solicit public comment and report to Congress on the use of Buy America waivers.

Murphy’s amendment would require that, prior to issuing a waiver, in addition to the public comment period, the Department must also assess the waiver’s impact on American jobs.

For decades now vulture capitalist like Mitt Romney have been taking good American jobs and shipping them overseas. Bain Capitol was well known for this and this could have been one of the reasons he ultimately lost the Presidential election.

People overwhelmingly agree that we should increase manufacturing throughout the United States. During the campaign President Obama said he want to create one million new manufacturing jobs right here at home.

With over 20 million still out of work, bringing jobs back and rebuilding the greatness that once was American Manufacturing should be a top priority. For Senator Chris Murphy, it is. He actually ran his campaign for Senate on this very principle. As a Congressional Representative from Connecticut, Murphy created the “Buy America” Caucus whose sole purpose was to push for policy changes to boost American Manufacturing. [mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”right” width=”33%”]”I believe our economy cannot recover without a strong manufacturing base” Senator Chris Murphy [/mantra-pullquote]

Senator Murphy in partnership with the Alliance for American Manufacturing highlighted four areas that need to be changed that will bring jobs back to the US and help create new long-term jobs

1. Stop the currency manipulation from China by passing Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act. China continues to manipulate their currency to ensure that their costs are cheaper. Senator Murphy said “We’re already in a trade war with China, we’re just not fighting it. We need to get more serious.”

2. Tax Reform. Provide incentives for companies who bring jobs back from overseas and stop subsidizing companies who are outsourcing jobs.

3. Invest in our infrastructure. One of the issues with American manufacturing is the ability to products to our trade ports. By building better roads, bridges and trains, manufactures can quickly and easily move their products across the country or around the world.

4. The United States Government needs to practice what it preaches by buying American made products. Currently the ‘Buy America’ law states that 50% products bought with taxpayer money be made domestically. Senator Murphy says that number should be at a minimum 60% but would like to see it closer to 75%.

Senator Murphy also pointed out that the current ‘Buy America’ law has one very large loophole that must be closed. If the government buys a product, lets say a gun, but that product is not going to be used within the United States, the law says that it does not have to be made in the USA. This loophole has been exploited by defense contractors and the DOD. Think of how much money the US Government spent over the last decade fighting two wars. What would that have done for our economy if we made all of those guns and ammunitions right here at home? If you remember weapons manufacturing during World War II was one of the way we pulled ourselves out of the Great Depression.

To fight back against this stagnant economy we must start by investing in America, and American Manufacturing. We need to start building more products and selling them throughout the world. We need to show that products made right here at home are better quality and economical. The Alliance for American Manufacturing just opened their new office in Washington D.C. that was built and furnished with American Made products.

Labor unions have taken a beating in the media recently over reduced membership numbers. Do you want to see unions growing stronger again? If so then we must all start to insist on American Made products. When American Manufacturing once again flourishes the membership numbers will grow with it. Oh and that thing that the Republicans are always screaming about, the national debt, that will go away on its own when we increase our GDP.

So if you want to reduce the debt, put millions of people back to work and support labor across the country the answer is simple, BUY AMERICAN!

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